Poppler is a GPL-licensed C++ library. PDFluent is a commercially licensed Rust crate — no C++ compilation step, no copyleft to propagate, and a higher-level API.
cargo add [email protected]Poppler is a system library installed via apt, brew, or built from source. It requires C++ headers and a linker step in your build. PDFluent is a Rust crate — add it to Cargo.toml and Cargo handles everything. No system package required, no pkg-config, no build.rs linking.
# Install system dependency
apt-get install -y libpoppler-cpp-dev
# CMakeLists.txt
find_package(PkgConfig REQUIRED)
pkg_check_modules(POPPLER REQUIRED poppler-cpp)
target_link_libraries(myapp ${POPPLER_LIBRARIES})# Cargo.toml — no system package needed
[dependencies]
pdfluent = "0.9"Poppler's C++ API returns raw pointers from load_from_file. You must check for null and remember to delete the document when done. PDFluent returns a Result. The ? operator handles errors, and the document is freed when it goes out of scope.
#include <poppler/cpp/poppler-document.h>
#include <poppler/cpp/poppler-page.h>
poppler::document* doc =
poppler::document::load_from_file("input.pdf");
if (!doc) {
std::cerr << "Failed to open" << std::endl;
return 1;
}
poppler::page* p = doc->create_page(0);
std::vector<poppler::text_box> boxes = p->text_list();
delete p;
delete doc;use pdfluent::PdfDocument;
fn process() -> pdfluent::Result<()> {
let doc = PdfDocument::open("input.pdf")?;
let text = doc.page(1)?.text()?;
println!("{}", text);
Ok(())
}Poppler is licensed under GPL-2.0. Any software that links against it as a library must also be GPL-licensed or obtain a separate commercial exception. PDFluent ships under a commercial license with no copyleft, so linking it never forces your own code open — no GPL propagation.
# Poppler GPL-2.0:
# Your application must be GPL-licensed if it links
# against Poppler directly as a library.
# Commercial use requires legal review or a separate
# arrangement with each downstream user.# PDFluent — commercial license:
# Proprietary, no copyleft. Keep your own
# source closed. Priced openly, published rates.
# No GPL propagation, no legal grey area.